Supporting the industries we serve

For many years Escape Technology has been involved in the CG industry - from our early days as part of Escape Studios to establishing a standalone services business in 2012. And it’s important for us to give back.

While some of us here are old enough to remember trying to spin a sphere in real-time with a texture map and a single point light (and failing) we’re always mindful of what we’ve achieved, where we’ve come from, and where the industry is going.

Part of our commitment - outside of providing hardware, software, and services - is to work with industry bodies that support the community. For some time now we’ve been working with our nominated charity, SpecialEffect, and more recently with our industry friends at Access: VFX.

For Access: VFX the mission is simple, but challenging: pursuing inclusion, diversity, awareness and opportunity within the UK VFX and creative industries. While that’s no small undertaking and it’s great to see a growing number of studios supporting the initiative and we are proud to be part of it.

Access: VFX is spearheaded by The Mill’s Head of Learning and Development, Simon Devereux who was recently named one of the top 50 male advocates for equality In marketing and media. Since its founding in 2017 the movement has run a number of events introducing visual effects to young people, campaigning for inclusion and diversity, and making noise about wellbeing in the industry.

“Having Escape Technology as part of the ACCESS: VFX collective is crucial to the success of our movement. With their industry understanding and ability to secure tech for our targeted outreach events, we can inspire the next generation of VFX talent more meaningfully through giving them hands-on experiences that I’m not sure we would be able to achieve without them!”

- Simon Devereux, Head of Learning and Development, The Mill

But our work doesn’t stop in film and TV. Since Neil Parmar joined us in 2015 supporting game developers has been an important part of our work. Neil brought with him an infectious passion for gaming and the gamer’s charity, SpecialEffect. This one is totally relevant to the creative industries - designing controls for people with physical disabilities to give them the ability to play video games. We’re delighted to do what we can to help raise awareness and funds. If you take a look at Tiago’s story below you’ll understand the joy it brings. This inspires everyone here to help in any way we can.

“It’s been fantastic to have the passionate support of Escape who really get the SpecialEffect Mission of using technology and gaming to improve the lives of people with disabilities. The team have generously supported fundraising and awareness campaigns including the Twin Town Challenge and One Special Day and we can’t thank them enough as they help us to help amazing young people like Harrison.”

- Nick Streeter, Fundraiser, SpecialEffect

Thank you to everyone who’s supported SpecialEffect and Access:VFX, and to those who run these important organisations. We’ll continue to commit ourselves to charities that support the creative industries and the people who work - and want to work - within them. And we’d encourage you to do the same.